The Kite Runner: Positive Propaganda

I remember in 2001 when the twin towers were hit and America's view of the Middle East was changed forever. At the time, I went to school with a Muslim girl whose family was from Iran, and I remember wanting to ask her how she felt about what had happened. I never did. Like many Americans, I was ignorant about her culture and her family's homeland. Since 9/11, many of us have developed preconceived notions about how Muslims treat women, socialize, and practice their religion. Now, novels like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini are helping to break down stereotypes about the Middle East. Many use propaganda, a type of message designed to influence people's opinions and behavior instead of provide impartial information. The Kite Runner in particular uses propaganda to change the reader's opinion about the Afghan people through association, demonization of the enemy, and the "common man" technique.

From the start of the novel, Hosseini uses the propaganda technique of association, which links an emotionally charged person or entity to a separate entity to influence someone's opinion. In The Kite Runner, the reader's perception of Afghanistan is tied to the sympathetic character of Hassan, the narrator's friend and half-brother. A stereotype exists in America that all Middle Easterners are violent; however Hosseini associates Afghanistan with a boy who is lamb-like in nature. The narrator, Amir, states that "...to me, the face of Afghanistan is that of a boy...with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile" (25). He is of course referring to Hassan, who was born with a harelip. Amir connects Hassan with his image of Afghanistan throughout the novel, creating an emotional tie for the reader as well. Hassan is the epitome of goodness and self-sacrifice, who allows himself to be brutalized so that Amir can bring home a trophy to his father. Hassan seems to have no faults, and Amir acknowledges that he is one of those "people who mean every word they say" (54). Hosseini truly makes the reader feel for Hassan, and in turn, for Afghanistan.

Another way in which The Kite Runner influences opinions about Afghanistan is by using the propaganda technique of demonizing the enemy, in this case the Taliban. Many Americans falsely believe that all Muslims are as strict in their religion as the Taliban. However, Hosseini makes a clear distinction between the average Afghan and the Taliban, and emphasizes the brutality of the Taliban in contrast with the more prevalent, more liberal Muslim practices in Afghanistan. He does this by creating an image of the Taliban that is almost evil in nature. Assef, the face of the Taliban in the novel, is a bloodthirsty sociopath. Amir recalls that, "I will never forget how Assef's blue eyes glinted with a light not entirely sane" (38). Assef is also the one who rapes Hassan, the kind, sensitive boy whom the reader has already come to associate with Afghanistan as a whole. Hosseini also uses the other Afghan's characters’ responses to the Taliban to reveal the gap between the average Afghan and the Taliban. Amir's mentor, Rahim Khan says, "They don't let you be human" (198). This portrayal of the Taliban is blatantly one-sided and seems to damn all of its members. Demonizing the Taliban in this way causes the reader to dissociate them from the rest of the Afghans in the novel who are portrayed in a more positive light.

At the same time that he creates distance between most Afghans and the Taliban, Hosseini uses the propaganda technique of appealing to the "common man" to compel the reader to identify with most Afghans. There is a tendency to label foreigners as "strange" and regard them as inherently different from us. In The Kite Runner, Afghan characters are shown doing many of the common everyday things that Americans do: going to see a movie, playing in the streets, and gossiping in the market. It's these small details Hosseini includes that make the Afghans seem human and accessible to the reader. Amir fondly relates how the Afghans would socialize at the flea market. He recalls, "Tea, Politics, and Scandal, the ingredients of an Afghan Sunday at the flea market" (138). Substitute coffee for tea, and I'm sure many Americans can relate to the same experiences of socializing with friends and discussing the latest news. The Kite Runner turns Afghans from "the other" into human beings to whom Americans can relate.

Throughout The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini uses propaganda as a powerful tool to influence his readers' opinions about Afghanistan and the people who live there. His portrayal of Afghanistan is mixed at times, yet I believe it takes steps to positively break down stereotypes that pervade American beliefs about Muslims and the Middle East. It is far from offering a solution to race conflicts, but if everyone read it, perhaps there would be more positive dialogue between Americans who are of Afghan origin, and those who are not. And that would be a good thing.

Skype: Should SJSU Ban It?

So I've been doing a little research about this thing called Skype. Seems it's creating quite a buzz here at SJSU, where there's talk about banning it. For those of you who don't know (and are too lazy to read the Wikipedia article), Skype is a P2P network through which users can make free calls to other users anywhere around the world using their computers. Cool, right? Well, except for the fact that it can turn faster networks into supernodes and suck up their bandwidth, something ISPs aren't too fond of. Hmm...universities tend to have fast connections, so does that make SJSU a target for this? Wikipedia claims that, "The selection of intermediary computers is fully automatic, with individual users having no option to disable such use of their resources." So if Skype wants to leech off your bandwidth, there's not a whole lot you can do about it.

But wait! This article says that a study showed putting Skype behind a default deny firewall "prevented super-node behaviour while still allowing calls to be made and received using web protocols." In other words, bandwidth use was limited to a user's own calls, which were unaffected by the firewall. Ok, seems like that would make the ISPs a little less grumpy.

But there are other concerns about Skype. First, it's closed source. Meaning, no one can know exactly what it's doing and how. This is a common practice and may actually make the network more secure, but some see it as a shady practice.

There are also questions of security. A year ago, some pranksters developed a patch that let them masquerade as other users. Wikipedia says, "The technique was for the prankster to put up an attractive profile with a woman’s name and picture, and put that profile into "Skype me" mode. Within minutes generally another user would invariably try calling/chatting. The patch running the whole time would then partner up another call to the first caller, and send messages from the first person to the second, and vice versa. This way, both victims would think that they were talking to a third, fictitious user, while they were instead talking to each other." Heh. Obviously, this prank was not intended to cause serious harm, but it shows that there are ways to get around the system. Skype also doesn't provide a way to verify another user's identity.

So why should we keep Skype at SJSU? IT consultant Steve Sloan wrote a great post about why Skype is important to have at this university. Skype allows faculty and students alike to collaborate with people all over the globe in an exciting new way. Sure, there are other alternatives to Skype that have less of the problems mentioned above, but did you know that Skype handles 7% of the world's long-distance minutes? As a university in Silicon Valley, it's important that we have access to the hottest technology in order to remain a competitive school. So is Skype worth the cost for SJSU? My vote is yes, it is.

Online vs. Print News

Today I compared the print version of the San Jose Mercury News with the online version. The first thing I noticed was that the front page articles in the print version were only linked to on the home page of the Mercury News' website, while blurbs from newer stories were written out. I can certainly see why they would want to do this. First, the featured story on the print version was an anniversary piece on a traffic column. Interesting to loyal Mercury readers, but not really big news. It makes sense to put more newsworthy stories on the webpage as they get them, therefore keeping their publication up-to-date and interesting. This is a major advantage that online media has over print; there's no limit to how many stories they can put up per day, and no gaps in the news between one printing and the next.

I looked next at the Arts & Entertainment sections of both the print and online Mercury. The "featured story" on the website was the last article on the front page of the print "A & E" section, a story on a T.V. show that premiers tonight called "Heroes." The rest of the front page stories were linked to, but did not warrant a blurb. I wonder why they made that choice? Perhaps they figured that people who log on to the Mercury website for quick news would be more interested in a T.V. show premiering tonight than a longer piece on Jon Heder (the featured piece in the print version). Maybe they figure that those wanting more in-depth news will take the time to click on a link.

Another thing I noticed in the Entertainment section online was an "Events" tool, which allows you to post events or search for things happening on a particular day. This certainly seems like a useful feature. In fact, one of my favorite things about online newspapers is the ability to preform searches to find the information you need.

After this experience, I might just start reading the online version of the Mercury more. After all, the news is more current, there are more features, and it doesn't stain my hands black. Now my only dilemma is how to get my crossword fix...

Access Denied

So for the past couple of weeks I've been putting together a piece for Access (the school magazine) to run in their Spring 2007 issue. It's a fun piece: I asked ten RA's in the SJSU dorms to reveal their funniest/scariest/wildest experiences on duty. All was going well (and I was getting some great material) until I got the news today: I can't publish the stories. Apparently the RAs' supervisors got wind of my piece and forbid the RA's from talking to me and are contacting Access to ask that they not run my piece.

So, I will admit that it was bad on my part to not have done more research to begin with, and clear my idea with the campus housing people. Still, most of the stories I collected were light-hearted, with no names mentioned. I had also been in the process of negotiating with Access to keep my sources' names from being published anyway, since many of the RA's didn't want to embarrass the residents in the stories, even if they weren't named.

So the question rolling around in my head is, could this be considered a form of marketpalce censorship? Both Access and campus housing are affiliated with SJSU. Obviously, the housing department can't control what Access decides to publish, but then again it's not in Access's best interests to publish something that could potentially be damaging to a part of the university. Just something to think about. (Disclaimer: I don't think either the housing department or Access have done anything wrong in this case, I'm just interested in how the system works.)

I understand why campus housing wouldn't want RA's discussing incidents. Essentially, it makes them look bad. It can also hurt residents' confidence in the system, and infringe on their right to privacy. I believe that there's a level of confidentiality that should be upheld regarding incidents in the dorms, especially those of a more serious nature. So naturally, when I heard that my piece probably wouldn't run, I wasn't all that upset. In fact, I would much rather it not run in light of the current situation, as most of the RA's I interviewed are friends or just very nice people that I don't want to get in trouble. You see, technically Access might still be able to publish my article, as I have already sent them a fair amount of material. I seriously doubt that they're still considering it at this point, but on the off-chance that they did, these RA's could lose their jobs if identified. And that's something I really don't want on my conscience, or my record as a journalist.

It's funny, because in my magazine writing class today, (before I knew about the problem with my piece) I asked my teacher, "What happens if you publish something that a source has requested be off the record? Can they sue you?"

His reply was: "I don't know about suing you, but you can bet your sources are going to dry up real quick."

Sounds like a good enough reason to me.

UPDATE: Boy was I wrong: Access wants to go ahead and publish this article, with or without the OK of the housing department. Still, I've talked to housing and made arangements to have them look over my article. I'm going to do this with their OK, or not at all.

UPDATE: Now I'm a little confused. I've been in contact with one person in the housing department who has approved my piece, however, I've still been hearing from some of the RAs that their supervisors do not want any of my stories to be published, and are strictly forbidding them from talking to me.

UPDATE: Look for my byline in next semester's issue. :-)

Propoganda: It's Everywhere!

Q: What forms of propaganda have you encountered lately?

A: After reading Wikipedia's definition of propaganda, I'd say quite a few. Here are just several examples I noticed this week:

1. Testimonials. I've been looking on eBay for a good pair of earplugs (I live in a noisy area), and have come across many listings that feature testimonials, which are a form of propaganda. Sure, they might be from real people who are telling the truth about their experiences, but they are put up by companies to influence a person's opinion without necessarily showing all sides. And come on, how many negative testimonials are you going to see in an ad? The purpose of propaganda is to influence, not inform.

2. T.V. commercials. OK, this one is rather obvious. But I just wanted to talk a little about one commercial I saw in particular, namely the new Gap ad, which resurrects Audrey Hepburn to sell skinny black pants. Obviously, the Gap is using a classic icon to appeal to fans of the late movie star, in a form of the propaganda technique of quoting out of context. As if Audrey Hepburn would be caught dead (heh) selling herself out so shamelessly to advertise merchandise made in some poor third world country. As Lisa de Moraes of the Washington Post protests in her article, "It’s a crime and a sin what the Gap has done to her." I agree.

3. Spike Lee's documentary, When the Levees Broke. We watched parts of this film in my MCOM 105 class. It's about four hours long, but utterly riveting and heart wrenching all the way. It tells the story of the devastation or Hurricane Katrina and the government's (lack of) response through the eyes of the people of New Orleans. Again, I'd imagine that all of the facts presented in the documentary are for the most part true, but the film is only presented from one side. It uses emotional appeals to the extreme, showing bodies floating in the water and lingering on the tears of the victims. Now, before someone gets the wrong idea, I want to say that I do not think this was a malicious use of propaganda. A documentary does not need to explore all points of view, and in this case I think the perspective shown is one that needs to be seen. People should just be aware that it is a biased perspective.

4. The Kite Runner. I'm still exploring whether or not to keep this one on the list. It seems, in creating propaganda, that the key lies in the intent of the author. Was Khaled Hosseini trying to influence the opinions of the reader, or was he simply writing good fiction? So far I'm seeing hints of stereotyping, and a lot of emotional appeals. You could argue that all novels are tainted by the views of their creators, but something tells me this book has more than your average dose of persuasion...

Holy Mackerel!

Pardon my geekiness, but did Robert Scoble really comment on my blog yesterday? So it really is true. Linking to someone else’s blog, even if they’re famous, means they’re potentially reading yours as well. Of course not all top bloggers are nice enough to actually take time to comment on lowly blogs like my own, but here’s proof that it really does happen. Whowouldathunkit? (I’m sure it helped that I was part of a small group at his alma mater that came to hear him speak the night before.)

So, the moral of the story is: be careful what you write when you link; you never know who might be reading!

Print media: is it dying?

Last night I had the opportunity to hear A-list blogger Robert Scoble speak here at SJSU. Although I'm quite new to the blog world, I found what he had to say fascinating. Did you know that every time you link to someone else's blog, they know about it and can go back and read your blog? It's a little intimidating to think that Scoble could be reading my blog right now. Although I'm sure he has more pressing things to do...

Anyway, the topic brought up in class was the evolution of the publishing world, and whether or not the books we have now and plan to pass on to our grandchildren will become so obsolete we will end up discarding them. Lilly used the analogy of the music industry, in which CD's have replaced vinyl albums. Fewer and fewer people still maintain a vinyl collection or own a record player anymore. So what's to stop books from going the same route when electronic media alternatives are perfected?

(One of the books I'm saving for my grandchildren)

I, for one, don't think the music situation is a good analogy. The enjoyment of music is a relatively passive activity which relies on a person's sense of sound. The movement from vinyl to CD did not so much affect the sound produced as the physical medium that contained that sound.

Books are a different matter, however. Unlike vinyl records, they don't need a device to "read" them, which means that anyone could pick up a book 50 years from now and still be able to use it. Also, the experience of reading a print book is an active one, which requires that you hold the book in your hand and physically turn the pages. We, as print readers, are accustomed to the look and feel of traditional books. Which is not to say that we can't adapt to new forms of books, only that it will be harder as the experience is so different. In reality, I think ebooks could really take off, especially if they become more interactive. Perhaps like DVD's, they could have "bonus features." Still, I think most people will be holding onto their print books for a long time.

So what about other forms of print media? Last night Scoble told us that he would be surprised if any of us ended up with a career in print journalism. My first impression was to be a little shocked by this comment. Did he really think that paper media industry was sinking that fast? As I started to think about it, however, I realized he's probably right. The overhead for printing on paper is growing. Meanwhile, it's becoming easier and easier to publish online, where there's no inherent length restrictions for text, and the overhead is practically zilch. The future of news media is online.

If I were a record company exec...

Q: If you were an owner or senior executive at a major record company, and in a position to make some changes to make the whole system work better, what would you do?

A: With the reality of the amount of illegal downloading going on in mind, I would have to make some changes in the way that my company's artists' music is being distributed online. It seems obvious to me that selling songs for 99 cents a pop on the web is way too much. In order to compete with foreign websites like allofmp3.com, my record company would have to offer rates similar to their $.01 per megabyte. I would also offer music files in a variety of formats so that fans could have more options.

Which still leaves the problem of making a decent profit. I would have to find a way to increase sales of concert tickets and merchandise. My hope would be that making legal music downloading cheaper would increase a band's fan base and therefore boost concert ticket sales. Merchandise sales, however, would be a bit more tricky. My first thought was to make merchandise "cooler" and just make more of it. I would hire a trendy graphic artist to create a variety of merchandise (clothing, mugs, posters, buttons, jewelry, that would appeal to a band's fan base. Then, I would sell said merchandise in a variety of venues, including internet stores like eBay. Hopefully the combination of a larger fan base and people's overwhelming desire for "stuff" would mean profits that would balance out losses from record sales.

BBC vs. ABC

In my MCOM 105 Media and Diversity class, we were asked to watch the BBC World News, and then a regular network world news show and make comparisons. As I had never watched the BBC before, I didn't know what to expect. I watched the BBC World News at 4:00 PM and ABC World News at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, September 5, and the differences to me were quite interesting.

On the BBC, the main stories (in this order) were: the Mexican election, NATO in Afghanistan, and Tony Blair'’s planned resignation. There was also a bit on Pakistan'’s agreement with the Taliban and the layoffs at Intel, as well as a few other shorter features.

On ABC, the story of Pakistan's agreement with the Taliban was featured first and discussed in more detail than on the BBC. Next on ABC was a look at the toll 9/11 took on rescue workers which may suffer lung problems as a result of that day. The layoffs at Intel, the change in executives at Ford, and the oil drilling in the gulf were featured; the Mexican election was discussed, but seemingly it was not considered a major story since it came near the end, just before short blurbs about autism and John Lennon.

Overall, I think the BBC took a more critical look at the stories it was reporting. In talking about the Mexican election, the BBC talked about rumors of ballot fraud and the agenda of the U.S., which favored the winning candidate. In the piece about NATO in Afghanistan, the BBC showed the reality of the war, with images of crying soldiers carried caskets back home. It also commented on the harsh conditions and how the war might continue for years to come.

ABC, on the other hand, did not seem quite as balanced. Instead of looking at both sides of the Pakistan story, the reporters took the opportunity to push the view that Pakistan is just creating a safe haven for terrorists. ABC featured lots of footage of Bush; more, I think, than was necessary. I also thought it was interesting that ABC hinted in the Pakistan story that Pakistan could be harboring Bin Laden, and then the next story they showed was about 9/11. Can we say, leading the audience?

The battle against music sharing

The RIAA needs to realize that it's fighting a battle it can't win. With the technology and resources available today, it's impossible to stop people from sharing and downloading music to their heart's content, especially when going overseas is just a click away. Take, for example, www.allofmp3.com, the Russian website that lets you download songs in the format and size of your choice for just $.01 per MB. This article in The Register does the math, estimating that what would cost $958 on ITunes would only set you back $50 on allofmp3.com. All of this is made possible by the fact that Russian copyright laws do not yet cover digital media. Although the Russian website warns against use "if it is in conflict with legislation of your country," I doubt this gives people more than a seconds pause. After all, you're still paying for the music, right?

Still, the question of ethics remains. You might ask, "Are we keeping artists from making a living by sharing their music or downloading it for cheap?" In most cases, I tend to say no. Music sharing can actually help get the word out about a group, meaning higher attendance at concerts and higher merchandise sales. They say that any publicity is good publicity, and I don't think that most artists are significantly hurt by their fans' music sharing habits.

Also, if I like a group enough, there is still incentive for me to go out and buy an album the "legit" way. There is something satisfying about having the complete package (cover art, booklet, and disc), that can't be duplicated from downloading online.